Michelle Pfeiffer turned down ‘Silence of the Lambs’ but would happily play Catwoman again

The name ‘Clarice Starling’ immediately brings actor Jodie Foster’s face to mind, but had casting gone the way director Jonathan Demme had originally wanted it to, it would be Michelle Pfeiffer that Silence of the Lambs fans would be picturing right now. Pfeiffer, however, turned the role of serial killer-hunting FBI agent Starling down. She didn’t like how the story ended.

“With Silence of the Lambs, I was trepidatious,” Pfeiffer told the New Yorker in a recent interview. “There was such evil in that film.” Silence of the Lambs, for those who haven’t seen it because they prefer to be able to sleep at night, sees Starling go after Buffalo Bill, a killer so unimaginably awful that it takes another of his kind to truly understand and help apprehend him (that would be Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter, a man who wasn’t given his first name, but earned it).

For Pfeiffer, the subject matter was too bleak and (30-year-old film spoiler alert) Hopkins’ character’s escape at the end didn’t sit well with her. “The thing I most regret is missing the opportunity to do another film with Jonathan [Demme]. It was that evil won in the end, that at the end of that film evil ruled out. I was uncomfortable with that ending. I didn’t want to put that out into the world.”

RELATED: Michelle Pfeiffer to play Betty Ford

[video_embed id='2124393']RELATED: Michelle Pfeiffer to play Betty Ford[/video_embed]

Pfeiffer did get to work with Demme pre-Lambs, on the 1988 movie Married to the Mob. It was the film that launched her career (and earned her Martin Scorsese’s attention). “It’s so sad to me that he’s no longer with us,” Pfeiffer said of Demme, who died in 2017. “First of all, he is the nicest person, he is funny, and not only is he really funny but he’s the easiest person to make laugh, so we just laugh all the time. [Married to the Mob] was a very demanding shoot, but for whatever reason I just sort of stepped into her. I don’t know why. I didn’t have to work really that hard at it, I didn’t even have to work that hard at the accent.”

Despite the fact that Silence of the Lambs won Foster an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA, Pfeiffer has no regrets about not taking on the role. She would, however, consider revisiting a part she’s already played: Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman) from Batman Returns. 69-year-old Michael Keaton, who took on the title character in that movie, will don his hood and cape once again for Warner Bros.’ upcoming The Flash movie. Sadly, Pfeiffer will not be dusting off her iconic patent leather one-piece.

“I would if anyone asked me,” she told Screenrant, “but no one’s asked me yet.”

Someone get Warner Bros. on the line, stat! 

BEFORE YOU GO: Life hacks around the kitchen we didn't know we needed until now

[video_embed id='2131145']BEFORE YOU GO: Life hacks around the kitchen we didn't know we needed until now[/video_embed]